Russian President Vladimir Putin has accused the outgoing US administration of trying to undermine the legitimacy of US President-elect Donald Trump.

“What we see is the continuing sharp domestic political struggle although the presidential elections are over and they ended with a convincing victory of Mr. Trump,” Putin told reporters after talks with Moldovan President Igor Dodon.

This struggle has several goals, Putin said, adding that the first of them is to “undermine legitimacy of the US president-elect.”

“Whether the people who have been doing that really wish it or not, they do cause harm to the interests of the United States and that harm is enormous,” Putin said. “One has the impression that upon gaining the required experience they may go as far as staging Maidan type of protests in Washington in a bid to prevent Trump from taking office.”

“Another aim they pursue is to bind the president-elect by hand and foot to not let him act on home and foreign policy election pledges,” Putin said.

“Look, how can anything be done to improve the Russian-US relations if such hoax as the interference of some hackers in the election campaign emerges?” Putin said. He noted that hackers did not invent anything but they only got access to the materials of the US Democratic Party’s campaign headquarters.

Vladimir Putin and US President Barack Obama thanked each other for their joint work at their latest bilateral meeting in Peru in November and there are no other meetings in plans, Russian presidential spokesman Dmitry Peskov has added.

“They have thanked each other for their joint work, it was their concluding meeting [on the sidelines of the APEC summit in Peru] and they have bid farewells during that bilateral meeting,” Peskov said. “There are no other contacts in plans.